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A 3rd-party ‘route’ is imported as a track. A track imported as a GPX file does not have direction information (left-right indication).
If you open the details of the route and scroll down you will find a list of all the points. You can now add a new point to the route and drag the new last point to the top of the list (using the three lines at the right).
Also, in the map you can drag any route point. (You can also add a ‘control point’ by dragging the line itself. This will create an orange control point.)
@Kritou:I did some research into the Bad Elf and found another option as well: Dual Electronics XGPS. It doesn’t have the tracking option though. And the battery doesn’t last as long: XGPS = 1400mAh/10h versus BE = 1600mAh/16h. So it seems the winner is… Bad Elf.
@mikewild & @Kritou: Regarding the tracking: I submitted a feature request some time ago about automatic bread crumb tracking. Check it out and you might want to support this feature request if you agree with it.
@Kritou: thanks for the tip! Sounds like a better option than a separate Garmin GPS since when using your iPhone you will immediately notice if the Bad Elf is switched on or not, and when the Bad Elf battery runs empty you will always have the iPhone GPS as a ‘back up’. Plus the advantage of being able to use GPS on your iPad/iPod Touch as well. Will it work on a Mac too?
@mikewild: Who do you mean by “These guys”? I use the same bread crumb method now and then, also just on the fly (on the road). This is easily done with PE. I name the bread crumb pins with “ff” (dutch slang for “quickly” = eFFe), so afterwards I still know it is a temporary pin.
I use routeyou.com – instead of GPSies.com – which has a great (mapping) interface.
When I’m on a long trip I usually set the PE » Settings » Screen Dimming to Always Allow and the iOS » Settings » Auto-Lock to 3 minutes. This will both preserve battery and gives you a convenient time to check if your still on track. Even though I use a hub dynamo to charge my iPhone while riding I still find this the best way to keep my iPhone charged. It happened to me to often that I forgot to switch off PE during a break and find my iPhone drained. (See also my feature request Screen Dimming: moving & charging.)
I’m using the PE route planning (MapQuest) mostly for the Netherlands and sometimes Europe where it is really good in using the recreational route for bicycles. But for the Netherlands there is a ton of detailed road information available.
For India I don’t think there is as much information about the smaller roads. I just tried to create a coastal road from Bombay to Goa for example and it is even not always able to calculate a route. When I was in India last year I didn’t use it since I didn’t have mobile internet and wifi was not very often available(!).
You can record the track in PE, but since you are using your own created GPX track it will be added to this. With a GPX editor or a simple text editor you can afterwards split the planned route and the ridden track.
The drawback is that you will be using significantly more battery power because the GPS must be on all the time. Also, you will need to pay attention to switching the recording on/off. In my experience (as a fellow world cyclist using PE) both will go wrong now and than. For instance you will forget to switch off the recording during a long lunch break or overnight. This will drain the battery. And when you do switch it off you will sometimes forget to switch it back on again. My golden rule: no matter how much charging (hub dynamo & solar panels) or power banks you take, you will want to restrict battery consumption.
An option to record your track is to use a GPS! I bought a Garmin Etrex HCx (cheap) to record my track. The garmin can be set up so that it will start recording as soon as it is switched on.
See my feature request (distance – altitude profile) regarding your altitude graph request/suggestion.
I would like to bring this feature request under your attention again.
Mainly #1, the altitude graph using distance instead of speed.When I plan my cycle trips I use http://www.routeyou.com (one of the best websites for creating your own route!).
When exporting a route from routeyou it includes the elevation:<trkpt lon="4.854548" lat="52.383252"> <ele>4.000000</ele> </trkpt>It is really a shame that the graph in PE is not showing this, since it relies on the time for creating the graph.
PS: Now I have to use a tool like MyGPSFiles.com/app (Window » Toolbox » Time | Set Speed) to add a “fake” time field to the gpx file to get the elevation graph:
<trkpt lat="52.383252" lon="4.854548"> <ele>4</ele> <time>2014-12-11T08:32:58Z</time> </trkpt>1) One vote for this from me. When you use an intermediate pin to create a route this intermediate pin is not always of interest, especially when they are used to alter a scenic route. I think the distance to the final destination should always be visible.
2) Totally agree!
3) You can change the size of the labels in Settings Menu » GPS & Compass » Info Label : largeMakes sense. You could create a feature request for this functionality.
You can show multiple tracks in the map by assigning all the 5 tracks to one group. You can do this by opening the detail screen of a track and tap the Groups entry (you will find this under the section Overview). Create a Group and select this for the track. Select the same group for the remaining tracks.
Now go to the Favorites » My Groups and select the group. Tap the View button from the details screen. Now all the tracks are displayed.
To show the tracks in a different map than PE you could try the web app http://www.mygpsfiles.com/app/ on a computer and open the GPX tracks. With MyGPSFiles you can change the color of each track (and do a lot more).
Short answer: not possible.
Longer answer: Blue is the default color of a track. A segment – or the whole track when it contains only one segment – becomes red when it is selected (when tapped on the blue line in the map).
Why do you want to able to change the color of a track?
@geomagik: did you notice this post, since you didn’t change the dutch translation of Hiking = Wandelen ≠ Trektocht.
Also, during my last cycling trip in Montenegro adn Croatia I noticed again that the cycle layer is a bit to thick. The underlying road type is really hard to distinguish, especially at zoom level 12 & 13. For example go to the island hvar (magikmap://l/43.14647/16.83140/11/) and switch on the bicycle layer.
I would like to add that the Cycleway, Footway, Bridleway and the Track are often very hard to see, especially when they go through forest for example. A slightly thicker line and a slightly wider white background could maybe do the trick?
Obtrusive: If you drag the map you probably will you use the lower part of the screen the most, especially when using it with one hand. The zoom buttons near the other lower buttons makes a little more cluttered.
You mention the zoom buttons are on the left side. Are you holding the iPhone in your left hand? If not, placing them on the right side will solve this issue for you.
The reason they where moved up was twofold. Unintentionally hitting them and being more obtrusive. (When dragging the map you will probably use the mid section of the screen the most.)
On a 4s one hand is still working for me though, but maybe I’ve got big hands.
But maybe we could ask for a small feature request? Add the options bottom-left and bottom-right?
BTW: for cycling I use a waterproof bikemount. Check out Lifeproof, there awesome (but expensive!) There are many other brands though.
Maybe you downloaded Nassua, New York (as I did) which is near Albany? That’s why I added step 6 till 9 as a double check.
Try downloading New York state (listed as New York, United States). This will download 118MB of data and includes the whole state. Instead, you can also download Lynbrook, New York when you don’t have enough memory.
BTW: when you switch on Settings » More Settings » Show Place Download Area the area of the selected map will be highlighted.
It all looks fine on my iPhone/iPad. I did the following to download the maps:
- Go to the main menu (left one on the iPhone)
- tap Get Maps
- type NASSAU in the search field
- tap Nassau, New York in the list (notice that it is 2MB in size)
- tap the Download button and wait for it to download (PE will give you a message when it succesfully downloaded the maps)
- Double check: go to Main menu » Offline Maps and see if you can find Nassau in the list
- Tap Nassau which will show you the details (population of 1135, elevation 135m, etc)
- Tap the View button
- Switch off your internet and zoom in.
Good luck,
JohanBack from a long distance trip with a lot of sunshine. It would be really nice if the arrow could stand out a bit more. Maybe not in the way I proposed some time ago (although I would like this).
An additional thought about the arrow. Because of the shape it is sometimes hard to see which direction it is pointing. The arrow has three sharp angles, and sometimes I have to look twice to spot the main one (see attached image). Again, while riding the bike and glancing at the screen, following a blue track line.
I propose to get rid of the sharp angles at the rear side of the arrow to make the point of the arrow more distinguishable. (And to promote the two coloured arrow: two colours would help to emphasise the direction, see attached image.)
Currently testing this with PE 2.3b9. As @BuckyE mentioned the favorite pins/POIs are hidden, but they are still selectable when zoomed out. I noticed this when trying to select a segment of a route at a lower zoom level. Instead of selecting the segment a (hidden) POI got selected (it was not visible at the given zoom level).
I agree with BuckyE that it would be nice to still show all the favorite Pins/POIs. But on the other hand you don’t know which ones are part of the group… A solution could be to highlight the POINs (POI + piN) that are part of the selected Group to distinguish them from the other POINs.
I totally agree. Also when going on a long distance cycling trip I often use imported GPX files which I created or from someone else (wikiloc, routeyou, bikemap, ridewithgps, etc). When I have alternative tracks it is nice to be able to see them at the same time.
I solution could be to add the tracks/routes to a Group and tap the View button. This already works for pins and poi’s.
To be able to show multiple tracks with PE I merge them with MyGPSFile.com or GPSVisualizer.com on my laptop. This works fine when preparing a trip, but is not an option when on the road.
